As technology advances in the semiconductor field, devices such as processors incorporate ever-increasing amounts of circuitry. Over time, processor designs have evolved from a collection of independent integrated circuits (ICs), to a single integrated circuit, to multicore processors that include multiple processor cores within a single IC package. As time goes on, ever greater numbers of cores and related circuitry are being incorporated into processors and other semiconductors.
Multicore processors are being extended to include additional functionality by incorporation of other functional units within the processor. These units share a single power budget. As a result, the higher the frequency at which a core portion of the processor operates, the higher the power consumed by the core portion, leaving lesser power for other portions of the processor. Suitable mechanisms to ensure that these different units have sufficient power do not presently exist.